It must face up to the fact that it needs more intellectual ballast or it will continue to concede political space to the Left.

The JNU fracas could in many
ways be the perfect dark comedy had the repercussions of what happened not been
so challenging – for the government, the liberal commentariat, and the
political Right. The amplification of a deeply troubling display of misplaced
political beliefs by a section of the radical Left by the media, and the
equally disturbing display of heavy-handedness by the current dispensation has obfuscated
two crises at hand – that of judgement, and imagination.

The crisis of judgement
stems from the government’s – and the Left’s – inability to distinguish between
what constitutes constitutionally-protected free speech, and what is truly
seditious. A student leader from a mainstream – though irrelevant – political
party, the Communist Party of India, was arrested for a speech that in no way constitutes
incitement to wage war against the State – the defining criterion for sedition
in Indian law. Whether this law is “good” or “bad” is besides the point.

Dark comedy

That this law has been on
the Indian Penal Code for as long as it has implies that it enjoys the protection
of the entire spectrum of the Indian polity that has fought and won elections,
unlike the radical Left which has historically been contemptuous of India’s
form of governance. At the same time – if forensic evaluation of the video-clips
confirms it – some of the sloganeering at the JNU campus event crosses the
not-very-fine line between unpleasant provocations and anti-national
exhortations. Meanwhile, the guilty parties are yet to be found, and academics
and journalists have been assaulted inside and outside Delhi’s courtrooms for not
conforming to hypothetical majoritarian standards. Dark comedy indeed, with a
hint of Kafka.

But the issue is much
deeper. If the Sangh Parivar believes that criticising the prime minister and
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh constitutes sedition, the task at hand is not
“closing down JNU,” as some have called for. It is that of setting up a
classroom in Nagpur (where the RSS is headquartered) that will provide basic
lessons in Indian law and the Constitution.

The radical Left imagines
constitutional protection as something to be invoked at will while negating the
very premises of the Indian state –
territorial integrity, the rule of law, and the supremacy of a government
elected by the people in a free election, whining about the inadequacies of the
“first-past-the-post” system aside. This reflects a curious, and troubling, relationship
the fringe on both sides has with the determinants of modern India.

Conservatism and India

The crisis of imagination is
on the part of the Right. Its familiar refrain – that India’s higher education
and academia in general is unresponsive to “alternative voices” – is a bit
shop-worn by now. The fact is that the current government has made very little
effort to seriously cultivate an intellectual Right in the country, beyond
co-opting free-market economists in its policy-making apparatus. But
conservatism is not a synonym for libertarianism, or simply a call for a
diminished role of the state in the citizenry’s social and economic lives. It
stands for continuity of norms in the Burkean sense – for the belief that hard
power is the defining criterion of a state’s standing in the international
order; for the primacy of culturally-inherited values.

But here lies the rub.
Integrating these defining criterion with the reality of India’s plurality makes the task of defining
“conservatism with Indian characteristics” an exceedingly difficult
intellectual project. Instead of seriously engaging with this, the Sangh
Parivar – and its political faces – have promoted a crude version of the same,
grounded in majoritarianism and fuelled by an army of semi-literate trolls on
social media.

Shed victim tag

The Right must face up to
the fact that it needs more intellectual ballast, beyond professional
provocateurs and known poseurs. Until this happens, political space will always
be conceded to the Left, which has some of the most erudite and charismatic
figures in national history on its side. Put another way, if Jawaharlal Nehru
University is India’s Berkeley, where is India’s University of Chicago? The
Right’s many mouthpieces need to ponder this critically by shedding the
narrative of victimisation.

Those of us who have
instinctively identified ourselves as being on the political Right have to
engage seriously with this project if we are to remain a political force in
India in the long run. We have to grapple and engage with some of the brightest
young people in this country who have misidentified the Indian Right with a
regressive political force that is offended at the slightest instance. The time
has come to change this misperception.

With the distinctive placement of the rear cameras, this phone makes a great subject for a photographic series.

Gaurav Sawn Photography

The light reveals the fluidity of its body; curves that fit perfectly in the contours of a palm.

Gaurav Sawn Photography

Reclining on a bed of satin, the glass-encased phone blends into the folds of the luxurious fabric.

The slimness, seamlessness and solidity of the phone make for a great profile shot.

A stunning design which is IP68 rated water-resistant too, it is as beautiful as it is strong.

We partnered with photographer Gaurav Sawn to create this series. Says Gaurav, “The glass sandwich design looks extremely good and the reflections on the back panel make the phone stand out. This is a phone that is best used without a case. The curved corners were also very comfortable to hold. All in all, really enjoyed shooting this phone!”

While this phone is elegant and crafted to perfection, it is also extremely tough, being protected from scratches with Corning® Gorilla® Glass that stretches all the way around.

You don’t need to sacrifice of performance either. It’s packed with a 2.2 GHz octa-core Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 630 processor and comes with a TurboPower™ Charger which means hours of power in minutes!

For the music lover, this phone is a boon. With simultaneous connectivity of up to four Bluetooth® audio devices at the same time, you can build your own stereo system without worrying about cables.

The dual rear cameras – a 12MP that lets you focus faster and get great results even on dark, cloudy days, and an 8 MP camera, with wide angle lens makes your most ambitious photos look all the more impressive.

To get your hands on the Moto X4, and experience perfection, click here.

This article was produced by the Scroll marketing team on behalf of Motorola and not by the Scroll editorial team.